Caribbean

Construction and grand opening delays are seemingly the norm for big hotel projects, and if you add a remote island location to the mix, delays seem to be all but guaranteed. It comes as little to no surprise that the much anticipated Park Hyatt St. Kitts has suffered another opening delay from spring 2017 to potentially summer 2017. The first date they are taking reservations is now very late June 2017. You can make reservations using Hyatt Gold Passport points…

Today and tomorrow (August 16 and 17th), the Delta SkyMiles program has issued a “flash sale” where you book award flights to the Caribbean and Mexico for 35% fewer miles than the “regular award prices” for travel from September 6 – November 16, 2016. This means that you can book awards to beautiful places like Saint Maarten, St. Lucia, Grand Cayman, Aruba, and more for just 11,000 miles each way (+ taxes/fees)! Similar awards with other programs often cost 15,000 – 17,500 miles each way.…

When the American Airlines AAdvantage made award chart changes earlier this year, most of the changes increased prices for awards. However, there were some changes that dropped the prices of select awards as I outlined here. One award price drop that I think is very useful for vacationing families is the price from the lower 48 to the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. Before the March 2016 changes, awards to the Caribbean, and islands I am eyeing like St. Kitts,…

One of the tougher things about a blog like this is that it is an ongoing dialogue that is read by those entirely new to miles and points, those who probably know way more than I do on many miles and points related topics, and many who are in-between those two categories. While there is a Beginner’s Guide, there is no practical way to read the last five years worth of posts to “catch up” to where the dialogue is at…

After we arrived and completed the check-in process at the all-inclusive Hyatt Ziva Cancun Resort, we happily headed towards our two-story 1,300 square foot Pyramid Suite. Suites are always nice, but once you have a couple of kids along for the ride, they take on a whole new level of “nice”. This is especially true when the kids are young and need naps or don’t sleep well at night. That “extra” space becomes very important and very well utilized in…

For months there has been buzz about the potential sale of the Radisson Aruba Resort, Casino, and Spa. This was not good news to fans of the Club Carlson program like myself since the hotel was only 50,000 Club Carlson points per night and Club Carlson co-branded credit card holders could get the last award night free (until all that changed on June 1st). Beginning June 1st, the hotel was no longer such a great deal on points once it…

Most major US frequent flyer programs price awards in large part based on geographic zones. For example, the lower 48 and Canada may be one pricing zone, Hawaii another, Europe another, Mexico and the Caribbean another. When you want to fly from one zone to another zone you pay the associated fee in miles according to the award chart. A common theme among most of these award chart zones is that it costs more to fly from the lower 48…

Since I am obviously a big fan of earning and using points at Hyatt Resorts both for the high quality of their properties as well as the stable award chart, I try to stay in the loop on new Hyatt developments. Today I wanted to give updates on two Grand Hyatt properties in popular vacation destinations, one that has recently opened, and one looks like it will experience yet another (pretty big) setback on opening its doors. Grand Hyatt Playa…

A number of factors have been working together to bring us some very good flight prices to Mexico and the Caribbean in recent weeks and months. I don’t cover all of them since I presume you already follow @theflightdeal…and if not, you should, but here are a few updates in case you have been busy and missed some of the deals. Philadelphia, Dallas, Phoenix, Charlotte, St. Louis, Raleigh, and Pittsburgh – from $272 on United Los Cabos took a big…

One of the new Hyatt Hotels I was most excited about for 2015 was the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in the Bahamas. In fact, when it was first available for award reservations is was a Category 4 at just 15,000 points per night! It is now increased to a Category 5 hotel at 20,000 points per night even though it has not yet opened, but many were still looking forward to the June 1st opening even at that rate. As…

About Summer

Well, I am a married mom in my mid-30's. I have two rock star, adorable, beautiful, fantastic, mischievous, humorous, smarter-than-my-own-good girls. One is currently 7 going on 17 and the other is closing in on her 2nd birthday. I am obsessed with my adorable and insane kiddos, and also obsessed with earning and using airline and hotel points and miles to show them the world on a budget we can afford. Learn more about Summer

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